


It Started At A Bus Stop

by hiiimaugust



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Fake Dating, I'm writing a love story, No Knowledge of the Games Required, alert the media, pre-game
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-26 23:53:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9934487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiiimaugust/pseuds/hiiimaugust
Summary: A frazzled young lawyer meets an All-American solider. They agree to help each other survive the holidays.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gr8_rach](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gr8_rach/gifts).



> Rachel wrote a fake-dating AU for me so I'm writing one for her. Although this could be canon for all we know. I'm not in the same fandoms as she is, hence why this isn't for Star Wars or something. I've never really written true romance so enjoy less than 1,000 words of not my best work.

Arcadia Zuckerberg met Nate Rogers shortly after missing a bus. She looked like hell and not in a good way. Battered briefcase, hair covered in snow, makeup running. She'd never admit it later but she'd been crying something fierce. He slid onto the bench beside her and held out a hankie. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

She took it but didn't use it. "Long day."

"Looks like you could use something warm to drink. There's a diner around the corner. My name's Nate."

"Arcadia Zuckerberg."

"Fancy." He kept a respectful distance as they walked through the snow and held the door for her. She stepped into the sweet-smelling warmth and he followed, shutting the door behind him.

"Take a seat wherever you like!" the waitress called out.

He motioned for her to select a seat. She slid into a booth, setting her briefcase on the bench. He sat down across from her.

The old waitress appeared with two mugs of coffee. "Can I get you two anything else?"

He ordered a piece of apple pie with ice cream. "I was stationed in Anchorage. Boston in winter is nothing." She settled for just the coffee.

"You're skinny as a bean pole," the waitress said. "Sure you don't want anything?"

"Yes, but thank you. Excuse me, I need to use the facilities." She made her way past the waitress and to the little bathroom in the back. She washed her face, removing her make up, too tired to care what Nate thought of the dark circles under her eyes or the splotchy wine-colored birthmark that took up one side of her face. She returned to the booth.

"Feeling better?" He looked like a recruitment ad, the all American solider. Perfectly styled blonde hair, friendly blue eyes, strong jaw, white unmarked skin, and a muscled body his coat couldn't hide. "I took the liberty of ordering a couple of burgers and fries. If you don't want to eat yours, I'll eat both."

She couldn't deny how hungry she was. "As long as it doesn't have cheese, I don't mind."

"I don't like cheese either. Now, you don't have to tell me anything, but I'd like to know why a pretty girl like you was crying at a bus stop."

She almost spit up her coffee. He could see her birthmark and her big nose and he thought she was _pretty_? She blushed. "It's rather petty. Nothing to worry about."

Her job woes certainly didn't compare to being a combat zone. In fact, the Blackburn and Associates Christmas Dinner felt needlessly extravagant knowing what the news regularly reported. She suddenly felt silly for letting that message get to her. With resources being hard to come by, Blackburn shouldn't have held it this year at all.

He took her free hand and gently rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. It felt forward for a man she just met, but oddly comforting. "Okay."

She pulled her hand away and wrapped it around the mug. He hoped he wasn't trying to get her into his bed. The last thing she need was to compromise her virtue. She took another slip of the coffee. The waitress appeared with two hamburgers and set them down in front of them, along with bottle of ketchup.

Nate took off his coat. She looked away. Damn, those pectoral muscles. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm on leave to bury my jackass alcoholic father, since my equally jackass flat-footed little brother won't leave his cushy job in Las Vegas." He squeezed ketchup onto his fries and started eating them with a fork.

That made it seem all the more petty. "I thought I was thought I was the only person who ate my fries like that."

He laughed. Her stomach flipped worse than it ever did in law school or a court room.

She took the most delicate bite of her burger she could manage. She hadn't been on a date in ages. She set the burger back down. "It's going to sound silly, but I was upset because my work is having a Christmas party. I'm expected to bring a date. I don't even celebrate Christmas."

"Jewish?"

She nodded.

"Nothing wrong with that. When's the party?"

"Saturday night."

"I'll make you a deal. I'll be your date to a party for a holiday you don't celebrate if you go to my father's funeral that morning. I could use a friend."

"You allowed to wear your dress uniform?" They kept eating. She stopped caring about how messy the burger was. Nate made her completely comfortable. Strange. She hadn't been comfortable since her sophomore year of university. "It's a formal event."

"Looking to impress your boss with solider?"

"Something like that." Mr. Blackburn claimed to be quite the patriot. 

"You know where Saint Leonard of Port Maurice is?"

She blushed again. Why did he ask a question when she had her mouth full? She swallowed. "North End."

"The service starts at 10 but I'll be there about 8. You can show up whenever you like. We can work out the details of your party after that."

"It's a deal." She took his hand. She shook many hands but his felt particularly nice. She looked away again. This would be easier if he wasn't so easy on the eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

Arcadia should have regretted taking Nate up on his deal, especially when she saw the bill for their dinner. It wasn't even a date and he paid, as if the price of beef wasn't a big deal to him. Never mind that they were in the middle of a world-wide conflict called "The Resource Wars." Some people, she supposed, came from money.

Which is why, she, the pull-herself-by-her-bootstraps daughter of a native Bostonian rabbi and an Israeli immigrant, dressed in her best dark clothes and her one pair of nylons. She risked ruining them in the snow but she had to try. She'd never darkened the door of a Catholic church and she hadn't attended synagogue since she went to university. Not that she expected G-d to strike her down for entering a Christian place of worship before she'd visit her own father, but...

Okay, she expected G-d to smote her. No point in lying to herself. Priests might be able to spot a liar from across a chapel. What did she know?

She ran from the bus stop to the church and walked up the steps. Nate, wearing a dark suit, and an older woman, stood just inside the front doors. Nate spotted her and pulled her into a hug. "Thanks for coming."

"You're welcome."

"Who is this, Junior?" the woman asked.

Nate carefully maneuvered Arcadia so she was standing beside him. "Elizabeth, this is Cady, the woman I've been seeing. I told you about her yesterday. Cady, this is my stepmom."

Arcadia tried to school her features. They agreed to _one_ date, not an entire fake relationship, especially not with a nickname. She definitely should have written a contract. Luckily, she had an excellent poker face. "You have my condolences, Mrs. Rogers. I should find a seat." She tried to step further into the church.

"Please, stay." Nate looked at her with gentle pleading. An unspoken 'don't leave me with this woman' crossed his features.

"If that's what you need." She kept her voice level and calm. Inside, she panicked. Bless law school for giving her the appearance of being cool-headed. "And it's not offensive to your stepmother."

"Of course it's not. I didn't expect you to be Arab, with a name like Katie."

"Cady," Nate corrected. "With a D."

Arcadia looked away, blood rushing to her face. She caught a familiar glint of gold glasses from further in the chapel and froze. _No._

Nate leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You alright?"

"Was Kingston Blackburn an acquaintance of your father?" she whispered back. "I'm new to the firm but those glasses are easy to spot."

"You didn't say you worked at Blackburn and Associates."

"You said you needed a friend not a _girl_ friend," she countered.

"Can we talk about this later? Kingston is coming this way."

"You're on a first name basis with my boss. Just what I needed."

The relatively young lawyer looked different without his signature yellow suit. He walked calmly up to Rogers' and Arcadia. "Junior, I had no idea you knew one of our best and brightest. Zuckerberg here is on the REPCONN case."

"Sir, we're not supposed to talk about cases outside of the offices." She'd technically been assigned to the case when she joined the firm. She hadn't been out of law school long. She didn't know most of details. Something about REPCONN's radioactive waste not being deposed of properly. She suspected that Solo, the senior associate in charge of it, didn't allow her to do much because everyone in the office thought she was a lesbian. She didn't think she was, given that she'd spent most of the past week thinking about Nate in a way that wasn't chaste.

"How long have you two been seeing each other?" Mr. Blackburn asked.

"Since a couple days after I came back on leave." Nate squeezed her shoulder.

Arcadia's brain screamed at the lie but she kept a straight face. _I said_ a _date, not dating_ "We're not super serious, sir. I promise his time on leave won't distract me from work."

"No, go ahead and be distracted. You couldn't have picked a better man." Mr. Blackburn grinned. "Are you bringing him to the Christmas party?"

"That was my intention, sir."

"If you're dating Junior here, it's Kingston. Outside of the office, of course."

"If that's what you want." _Great, now I'm going to explain a fake break up. I should have gone into criminal law. I'd rather lie in the court than outside of it._

"Now, Junior, don't go breaking her heart." Mr. Blackburn clasped him on the shoulder. "She doesn't have many other prospects."

Arcadia's world spun a little at that. She knew she was ugly but geez. Clearly Blackburn hired her for her brain.

"Kingston, you're my friend but insulting my girlfriend is uncalled for. Oh, and stop calling me Junior. The man I was junior to is a corpse. It's Nate."

"Your first name is _Stephen_ ," his stepmother said.

Arcadia took the argument as a chance to escape further into the church. No matter how good looking Nate was, she was clearly in over her head. That evening was going to be interesting, in the Chinese proverb sense of the word.


End file.
